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A branch of governmental service in which individuals are
employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by
competitive examinations.

The body of employees in any government agency other than the
military.

A civil servant or public servant
is a civilian public sector employee
working for a government department or agency. The term explicitly
excludes the armed services, although civilian officials will work
at "Defence Ministry" headquarters.
The term always includes the (sovereign) state's employees; whether
regional, or sub-state, or even municipal employees are called
"civil servants" varies from country to country. In the United
Kingdom, for instance, only Crown employees are civil servants,
county or city employees are not.

Many consider the study of civil service to be a part of the field
of public administration.
Workers in "non-departmental public bodies" (sometimes called
"QUANGOs") may also be classed as civil
servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms
and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its
Civil Service or Public
Service.

No state of any extent can be ruled without a bureaucracy, but organizations of any size have
been few until the modern era. Administrative institutions usually
grow out of the personal servants of high officials, as in the
Roman Empire. This developed a complex administrative structure,
which is outlined in the Notitia
Dignitatum and the work of John
Lydus, but as far as we know appointments to it were made
entirely by inheritance or patronage and not on merit, and it was
also possible for officers to employ other people to carry out
their official tasks but continue to draw their salary themselves.
There are obvious parallels here with the early bureaucratic
structures in modern states, such as the Office of Works or the Navy in 18th century England, where again
appointments depended on patronage and were often bought and
sold.

China

One of the
oldest examples of a civil service based on meritocracy is the Imperial bureaucracy of
China, which can be traced as far back as the Qin Dynasty (221–207 BC). During the
Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) the
xiaolian system of recommendation
by superiors for appointments to office was established. In the
areas of administration, especially in the military, appointments
would be based solely on merit.

After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy would
regress into a semi-merit system known as the Nine-rank system, yet in this system noble
birthright became the most significant prerequisite for one to gain
access to more authoritative posts.

This system was reversed during the shortlived Sui Dynasty (581–618), which initiated a civil
service bureaucracy recruited by written examinations and
recommendation. The following Tang
Dynasty (618–907) would adopt the same measures of drafting
officials, and would decreasingly rely upon aristocratic
recommendations and more and more upon promotion based on the
written examinations.

However, the civil service examinations were practiced on a much
smaller scale in comparison to the stronger, centralized
bureaucracy of the Song Dynasty
(960–1279). In response to the regional military rule of jiedushi and loss of civil authority during the
late Tang period and Five Dynasties (907–960),
the Song emperors were eager to implement a system where civil
officials would owe their social prestige to the central court and
gain their salaries strictly from the central government. This
ideal was not fully achieved since many scholar officials were
affluent landowners and partook in many anonymous business affairs
in an age of economic
revolution in China. Nonetheless, gaining a degree through
three levels of examination — prefectural exams, provincial exams,
and the prestigious palace exams — was a far more desirable goal in
society than becoming a merchant. This was because the mercantile
class was traditionally regarded with some disdain by the scholar official class. This class of
state bureaucrats in the Song period were far less aristocratic
than their Tang predecessors. The examinations were carefully
structured in order to ensure people of lesser means than
candidates born into wealthy, landowning families were given a
greater chance at passing the exams and gaining an official degree.
This included the employment of a bureau of copyists who would rewrite all of the candidate's
exams in order to mask one's handwriting and therefore make all
candidates anonymous and unable to employ favoritism by graders of
the exams who might be associated to them and recognize their
handwriting. The advent of widespread printing in the Song period allowed many more
candidates of the exams access to required Confucian texts which could be
utilized in passing the exams.

Europe

The Chinese civil service became known to Europe in the mid-18th century, and influenced the
development of European and American systems. Ironically, and in
part due to Chinese influence, the first European civil service was
not set up in Europe, but rather in India by the
East India Company,
distinguishing its civil servants from its
military servants. In order to prevent corruption and favouritism, promotions within the company were
based on examinations. The system then spread to the United Kingdom
in 1854, and to the United States in 1883, with the Pendleton Civil Service
Reform Act.

France

The civil
service in France
(fonction publique) is often considered to include
government employees, as well as employees of public
corporations.

United Kingdom

The civil
service in the United
Kingdom only includes Crown employees; not those who are
parliamentary employees. Public sector employees such as
teachers and NHS doctors are
not considered to be civil servants. Note that civil
servants in devolved government departments in Northern
Ireland are not part of the British Civil Service, but
constitute the separate Northern Ireland Civil
Service.

Brazil

In Brazil public servants are hired through entrance examinations,
known as Public Contests - Concurso
Público, in portuguese -.There are several companies
thatthe government hires to do the
examinations, the most known arethe Cespe, the
Getúlio Vargas Foundation, ESAF, established in universitiesand the
Foundation Cesgranrio. The position is filled according to the
examination score.

In Brazil, public officials are privileged compared to the private
sector.

Culture Pass (yet to be enforced) - About 15% of their salary
to spend more on movies, theater and other leisure and culture

Maternity leave - Maternity leave for a time in Brazil is 120
days to 180 days are public officials

Lifelong employment - It is prohibited to resign civil servants
in Brazil, except if there is any occurrence or very serious
violation.

Wage - The civil servants are among the richest working class
in Brazil, depending on the career

Spain

The civil
service in Spain
(funcionariado) is often considered to include government
employees, "Comunidades Autónomas" employees as well as city's
employees. There are three main bodies on the spanish civil
services, political posts ("puestos de libre designación, level
28-30") with poor or no exam to get them, posts "funcionarios de
carrera" with an exam to get them and "personal laboral" posts also
with an exam similar of "funcionarios de carrera". There are
differences in exams between state, the 17 autonomic communities
and the city councils, and differences between "funcionarios" and
"personal laboral" exams vary in difficulty from one to
others.

United States

In the
United
States, the civil service was established in 1872.
The Federal Civil Service is defined as "all appointive positions
in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the
Government of the United States, except positions in the uniformed
services." ( ). In the early 19th century, government jobs were
held at the pleasure of the president — a person could be fired at
any time. The spoils system meant that
jobs were used to support the political parties. This was changed
in slow stages by the Pendleton Civil Service
Reform Act of 1883 and subsequent laws. By 1909, almost 2/3 of
the U.S. federal work force was appointed based on merit, that is,
qualifications measured by tests. Certain senior civil service
positions, including some heads of diplomatic missions and
executive agencies are filled by political appointees. Under the Hatch Act of 1939, civil servants are not
allowed to engage in political activities while performing their
duties.

U.S. state and local government entities often have competitive
civil service systems that are modeled on the national system, in
varying degrees.

As of January 2007, the Federal Government, excluding the Postal
Service, employed about 1.8 million civilian workers. The Federal
Government is the Nation’s single largest employer. Although most federal
agencies are based in the Washington D.C. region, only about 16% (or about 288,000) of the
federal government workforce is employed in this
region.

There are over 1,300 federal government agencies.

Other countries

Other countries tend to use systems which vary between these two
extremes. Germany makes a clear distinction, as in the
U.S., between political and official posts (though the
threshold is placed rather higher); also see Beamter.

Other meanings

Civil service also means a form of legal conscientious objection, for example
the Swiss Civilian Service.
More accurately, in this scope Civil service is work of public
interest done as a replacement for a military obligation to which
one objects. It should be noted that the Finnish "siviilipalvelus",
French "service civil", German "Zivildienst", Italian "servizio
civile" and Swedish "civiltjänst" all can be translated to "civil
service".

External links

References

http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs041.htm, Section: Employment,
Note: Because data on employment in certain agencies cannot be
released to the public for national security reasons, this total
does not include employment for the Central Intelligence Agency,
National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National
Imagery and Mapping Agency.

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/index.html

Ari Hoogenboom. Outlawing the Spoils: A History of
the Civil Service Reform Movement, 1865-1883.
(1961)